Today, a significant amount of information is communicated via the Short Message Service (SMS) or so-called “texting” infrastructure that is provided by mobile phone carriers worldwide. This vital communications channel has proven useful during times when other channels of communications such as voice and data networks are either overloaded or inaccessible, especially during natural or man-made disasters. For example, during the 9/11 terrorist attacks and during a recent tsunami disaster in Japan, people were able to communicate via texting even when no voice or data service was available.
The popularity of texting (SMS) communications for consumers has continued to explode over the years. “During the 2009 calendar year, there were more than 1.5 trillion text messages reported on carriers' networks.”
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The same report indicates that more than 5 billion messages are sent per day over this infrastructure. However much of texting communications is limited to cellular enabled devices. There is a class of devices that fall into a category of SMS constrained systems due to the lack of cellular connectivity.
While there is a considerable body of prior art that enables some constrained devices to send SMS messages to cellular enabled systems, most of these gateways provide access: a) one way—mostly used for messaging to the device or handset (e.g., using Skype as one example); and/or b) through traditional email gateways that add significant overhead, further reducing the amount of data that can be communicated due to the brevity of the standard SMS communications channel (e.g., 160 7-bit characters per message).
Cellular telephone carriers often provide email gateways to enable such communications (e.g., for Verizon in the US the gateway is phonenumber@vtext.com), however they may reduce the priority and rate at which these messages are processed, and are generally only inbound. There are also third party service provider messaging services that are tightly integrated with enterprise applications and websites, and can process and originate bulk SMS messages but generally do not receive or permit any replies.
It is also possible to access SMS through microblogging services such as Twitter, but Twitter is generally used to broadcast to a number of followers rather than for providing secure point-to-point communications.
While texting has become pervasive, many systems today are unable to participate in any correspondence via this technology, and/or are saddled with additional overhead when communicating information to peer systems through existing gateway infrastructure.
Taking a different approach than many typical commercially available offerings, exemplary illustrative non-limiting technology herein provides a cloud enabled service that provides access to SMS services by devices having no cellular connectivity. Alternatively, devices that do have cellular connectivity may now have access to SMS services in a more cost efficient manner especially when roaming onto foreign or partner networks.
One non-limiting illustrative arrangement provides a web-enabled service that acts as a bridge between Internet connectivity and SMS communications. Based on cloud computing methodology, an exemplary illustrative non-limiting example exposes secure web services that can be used by applications to send and receive SMS or other message oriented correspondence from other SMS or otherwise enabled peer devices. Furthermore, these cloud-based services can in illustrative implementations be front-ended by a user-friendly web base portal that allows an individual or an organization to manage their account simply. Additional facilities through the web interface allow SMS or other message oriented communications to be exchanged with peer systems.
Given the popularity of this type of communications today, it is highly desirable to provide a solution that allows for SMS constrained devices to participate as peers to the other cellular enable devices over alternate communications media such as the Internet. In particular, it would be highly desirable to provide a solution that enables the exchange SMS or other message oriented communications over multiple communications paths.
The illustrative non-limiting Solution-as-a-Service (SAAS) provides illustrative devices, systems and methodology to use the Internet or other networks to seamlessly bridge messages to and from cellular network SMS communications paths. Unlike other available SMS gateway services available today, exemplary illustrative non-limiting technology herein provides an enterprise and/or consumer oriented services that provide Direct Inward Dialing (DID) functionality for each account. This capability can be used to enable any SMS enabled device to send messages to other enabled device(s) natively. No additional translation is required by a carrier network infrastructure or handset in example non-limiting implementations, providing for full utilization of the SMS communications channel without additional overhead.
Exemplary illustrative non-limiting services also provide a potential for cost reductions to customers even for systems and devices that have cellular connectivity. Consider a user who is traveling internationally. Traditionally, when a cellular enabled device roams off of its home carrier to a partner network, significant charges are typically assessed to the user of the partner network's services. However, many of these cellular devices are also equipped with Wifi interconnects. Through the use of Internet connectivity via a potentially more cost effective (e.g., often free) Wifi network, the cellular device can use the alternative exemplary illustrative non-limiting services detailed herein to continue to bidirectionally send and receive SMS messages to its peers at a fraction of the cost associated with the visiting cellular carrier's network.
Alternatively, there may be circumstances where alternative non-limiting communications as described herein never need to use the cellular carrier network services at all, further reducing costs. Consider if both peer devices have established accounts. The exemplary illustrative non-limiting communications described herein never needs to traverse outside the alternative infrastructure as it can be handled by routing within the service infrastructure itself.
Other uses can also be considered. Consider a device such as an Apple Corporation iPad or other tablet or desktop device running operating systems such as Google Android or Microsoft Windows that does not have cellular connectivity. In this case, with the added functionality of an application to enable alternatively-directed SMS messaging over a different network, these devices can now easily participate in SMS communications with other peer devices. Such services can for example be made available via standard Internet communications protocols such as HTTP(s) as one example. By using such standard protocols, access may be available in many managed network communications paths where proprietary protocols are disallowed potentially through the use of firewalls, etc.
Another example non-limiting scenario is the Apple iOS or other tightly controlled operating system technologies that may limit programmatic access to SMS communications on systems that may have cellular connectivity such as the iPhone, iPad, etc. In such systems, a third party application developer may be unable to gain access to the short message service API's in the device operating system. Third party applications on the device thus can be used to send an SMS though other resident native applications, but may not be possible for a third party application on such devices to directly send an SMS itself without going through another resident native application. This may be undesirable from a user experience standpoint (e.g., requiring the user to request a “send” twice).
In these instances, the exemplary illustrative non-limiting technology herein enables third party applications to be developed that can use data connections (e.g., WiFi) to fully utilize and enhance the capabilities of the device to participate in communications over SMS channels. Exemplary illustrative non-limiting applications may for example allow messages to be exchanged privately between cooperating peers systems, over either the traditional cellular SMS communication path or via data network interconnects (4g, 3g, 2g, WiFi, WiMax, Bluetooth, Ethernet, etc.) Such peer systems thus need not be resident users of SMS—they can be any device that has an SMS-enabled application. An SMS message sent back by such a device will be converted back to a data channel-enabled message that can in turn be sent back via data communications infrastructure to the application running on the device. This allows the SMS infrastructure on the iPhone or other similar device to be sidestepped and yet still enable timely bidirectional SMS messaging.
Furthermore, due to the use of standard Internet protocols such as HTTPS, not only can bidirectional communications flow through conventional network infrastructure, but security and anonymity can be enhanced for SMS or other messaging oriented communications by using the anonymzing services such as for example the TOR project (http://www.torproject.org). Tor is a network of virtual tunnels that allows people and groups to improve their privacy and security on the Internet. It also enables software developers to create new communication tools with built-in privacy features. Tor provides the foundation for a range of applications that allow organizations and individuals to share information over public networks without compromising their privacy. Individuals use Tor to keep websites from tracking them and their family members, or to connect to news sites, instant messaging services, or the like when these are blocked by their local Internet providers. Tor's hidden services let users publish web sites and other services without needing to reveal the location of the site. Individuals also use Tor for socially sensitive communication: chat rooms and web forums for rape and abuse survivors, or people with illnesses.
Exemplary illustrative non-limiting applications herein can be enhanced to include TOR or other anonymizing capabilities, reducing the possibility of exposing the intended communications between peers. This functionality may be useful for example to individuals in situations where confidentiality of exchanging messages with peers is of utmost importance. The actual ultimate destination of a particular message can be kept private from malicious or nefarious third parties over local data interconnect networks. In contrast, such messages sent from a conventional SMS client over a conventional SMS messaging network can be fairly easily tracked (e.g., based on cellular phone number), compromising the security and safety of clandestine operators.
Using such anonymizing services, it is possible to hide that the device is even connection to SMS messaging in the first place (the connection looks instead like a conventional internet connection). Such arrangement can provide full anonymity. An attacked will not be able to discern (a) that the device is sending a message, (b) to whom any communication is being sent, and (c) who any communication is being received from. The only information discernible from the data traffic is that one IP address is connecting to another IP address somewhere out on the Internet.
Still another illustrative application provides a movable command and control center that can connect bidirectionally via different network points of presence and/or IP addresses (e.g., by rotating IP addresses). Because this is an outbound service, it is possible to change IP addresses on a per exchange basis, and validation of secure credentials is used instead of IP address to provide bidirectional communications over time.
Management services built on top of standard operating systems such as Linux, Windows, MacOSX, etc. or other TCP/IP environments can now easily send/receive SMS messages to/from other devices. For instance, it is now possible to enable users to send messages along with secure command and control information (e.g., issuing remote commands to the device to locate a device, disable or enable certain device functionality, etc.) to SMS or non-SMS enabled devices via a Web interface. The Web interface can be locally housed within an enterprise or at a managed service location somewhere within the Internet Cloud.
Additionally, one-to-one or one-to-many messaging applications can also be simply developed such as for pointcasting, microblogging, etc. Other enterprise applications such as for example a Customer Relations Management (CRM) application can be enhanced to use such services, thus providing another avenue for corporations to establish two-way communications with their customers/consumers.
Unlike other messaging gateway services where the corporation may need a point of presence on the Internet to receive inbound communications, exemplary illustrative non-limiting implementations further reduce a possible exposer to malicious attack vectors. All communications in example non-limiting implementations can initially be by a peer system such as within a corporate firewall opening an outbound (bidirectional) data communications path through the firewall—removing the requirement for an entity to open up access through a firewall or other defensive systems for inbound communications. Anonymity can be further enhanced by using the aforementioned TOR functionality or at minimum regularly changing endpoints point of presence on the Internet.
Some example methods may involve the user acquiring a phone number (D10) which has an associated monthly cost/fee. In other arrangements, etherSMS will allow the destination to be one of the following:                A valid mobile phone number        A virtual etherSMS phone number        A etherSMS logon name/identity (all etherSMS accounts sign-on using a unique e-mail id as their identity)*        A “validated” mobile number (see process below)*        
The two items (marked with *) can for example be actual look-ups within the etherSMS network. When a destination is presented, the internal systems may determine if a) the destination is an e-mail address and b), determine if said address matches any of the uniquely created accounts within the etherSMS network. If a match is detected, the message is routed “in-network” and assigned to the intended user.
An additional method may also be implemented whereby a user may wish to use their existing mobile phone's number as a means to route messages through the etherSMS network. Using the account “portal”, an etherSMS subscriber may enter a valid mobile phone number as a form of additional routing information. To prevent spoofing and other nefarious activity in certain illustrative implementations, a mobile phone number used for identification may be validated as a condition for use. The validation process used by etherSMS will send a random or pseudo-random number code to the specified number. Since only the rightful owner of the mobile device may see the random number, this process verifies that it does indeed reside in their possession. Once the numeric code received on the mobile handset is verified in the user portal, the number is “validated” and accepted.
Once validated, the in-network routing mechanisms now route messages in-network based on matches to validated phone numbers as well. Alternatively, the verification information exchange could be provided to the user via email, voice callback, etc.
Giving an entity the ability to have multiple identities potentially associated with more than one device, etherSMS can also route messages to the entities' multiple devices. For example, a user may have a cellphone and an iPad. The user would like messages to appear on both systems. A relationship can be set up so that messages received or sent are replicated to the other devices, allowing the user to continue the exchange from any one of the associated devices.